Workforce Education
Mission Statement
The Workforce Education Department’s mission is:
- To provide Washington’s community and technical colleges with the tools that they need to give access to all of Washington’s residents to attain family wage jobs and adapt to future career requirements in Washington’s changing economy.
- To build partnerships with Washington business and labor in order to build a world-class education and training system that makes every region of our state competitive in the world economy.
- To create a system of lifelong learning that allows students to seamlessly connect learning in high school, in basic skills and ESL programs and learning on the job to professional and technical programs in colleges and learning upgrades over their lifetime.
Training Today for Tomorrow's Jobs
The department serves the professional and technical programs of Washington’s 34 community and technical colleges.
Partnerships
The department helps build regional and statewide partnerships between colleges and companies, labor organizations, and industry associations.
The department works closely with the Association of Washington Business to link colleges with businesses throughout the state.
The Association of Washington Business and the department operate a joint website, WorkforceCollege.com, that links businesses with training programs at colleges all over the state.
WA Skill Standards
This section is designed to provide information about Washington's Skill Standards projects, link industry partners with schools and colleges, inform individuals about Skill Standards, and link Washington with national efforts. Funded by the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges through Washington State’s Federal School-to-Work Grant.
Economic Development
The focus of the department for the past several years has been on the role of workforce education in economic development. The department works to provide resources and incentives to colleges to work with key strategic industries to build strong regional economies.
Program Approval
The department also oversees the professional-technical program approval process for the creation of new programs at colleges, offers incentive funding to colleges to start up new programs in high demand fields. Working with the Workforce Education Council, the association of workforce education deans and directors, the department works to provide training in analyzing the viability of existing programs.
Funding and Technical Assistance
The department provides funding and technical assistance to colleges in the following program areas:
More information is available on the workforce program funding page.
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